Meta

Flickr Photo

Photographer Matthew Rolston: How to light yourself at homeNews from Los Angeles Times:

Matthew Rolston has photographed pretty much every Hollywood celebrity roaming the Earth. His goal: Make people look their best.

But as creative director for the Redbury Hotel in Hollywood and the man behind the lighting design of the guest rooms in Sam Nazarian’s SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills, Rolston said he has studied lighting and noticed consumer confusion over how to illuminate spaces, particularly living spaces.

“I go to places like Lowe’s in Burbank, which I love, and I’ve noticed no one lingers in the light bulb aisle,” Rolston said, constrasting the confidence that shoppers show in the paint aisle versus the confusion they show in the lighting section. “Men and women alike, they just scratch their heads, then desperately buy something without really understanding what they’re getting.”

Rolston’s No. 1 rule: Remember that the person is more important than the space.

“Generally people focus on architectural lighting, not how people are going to look in a space,” he said. “But space is just the frame; the painting is the person.”

Rolston recently trolled the aisles of Lowe’s with the Los Angeles Times to prove that A-list lighting can be had for big-box prices. His advice:

Marc Soudijn, Haitham Charles, Scott Weber and Larry Golden are the four local businessmen behind the Gulf Coast franchise of LED Source. Wellington-based LED Source has seven franchise units nationwide.

Friends and fellow entrepreneurs Marc Soudijn and Haitham Charles initially considered a World of Beer bar when they decided to buy a franchise together.

But selling suds will have to wait.

Instead, the pair, with two other partners, invested in a decidedly more unique franchise opportunity: LED lights. The lights, which stand for light-emitting diodes, use less energy and last longer than traditional lights, according to the industry.

Soudijn and Charles are now chief sales officer and chief operating officer, respectively, of an LED Source franchise operation. Their territory stretches from Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County south to Collier County.

LED Source, with a corporate headquarters in Wellington, sells high-end LED lights and lighting products to businesses. The focus is on finding entities that burn a lot of lights for long periods of the day, which could be anything from police stations to factories, and hospitals to car dealerships.

Founded by two lighting industry executives in 2005, the idea is to c…………… continues on Gulf Coast Business Review